Okay, I'm starting this as soon as I posted the last one, A. Because I want to get this up as soon as possible & B. Because I got 5 reviews already!

In a few days I'm going to town with my Dad & Sis (I live in the bush), and will be coming back with my mind completely wiped of all coherent thought except 'Yay! I finally got The Sisters Grimm!', so I'd best type this now.

Seriana14: Ok, ok! Here's some more. And more Sirius/Hermione! Yay!

Flamegirl5500: Well, you can take a look in this chapter, and don't worry, she'll find a cure.

Siriusly-a-princess: I know how you feel. I get fics confused all the time. I was thinking of adding a recap part anyway.

I love Neville: *gasp* well if that means this makes someone like Sirius, then I have done some good! :P

I luv hardy: Thanks for reviewing! And I like that too, I was kinda tempted to add her banging her head on the book yelling 'bad brain! bad brain!' but I figured that would be a bit much.

NJ: Well, here's an update not even a week apart!

RECAP:

Oh god. I hear someone coming. They can't see this! It's probably Harry & Ron. I have to tell them! But I have to give them some sort of explanation… And I will not tell them about my nightmares—it's my head, not theirs.

Quick, Bye,

Hermione

She hurriedly closed the book and pressed her thumb into the indent again, just as the portrait hole opened to reveal Harry, Ron & Ginny.

Hermione mentally groaned and decided to just deny to answer. She hated keeping secrets from her friends, but she certainly wasn't about to tell her friends. It was her head.

Her friends walked in, and Hermione mentally steeled herself for the ordeal to come.

Hermione took a deep breath and sat down on her bed, leaving her work chair and the floor for the boys & the spot next to her on the bed for Ginny.

"Fine, ask your ridiculous questions, but only for today" she sighed, annoyed. She realized that that was exactly what Sirius had said this morning.

"How were you arguing with Sirius? You've never argued with a teacher before." Harry asked.

"I refuse to answer that one, so please don't ask again" She pleaded

"Yeah, I got one! How come you were staring at Sirius & you were both blushing?!" Ron asked jealously

"Err… I kissed him on the cheek" She mumbled

"What?! Why the bloody hell did you kiss him for?!" Ron roared

"Malfoy warded me in my room and only let Ginny out. She got Sirius—" Ginny shuddered. She still couldn't get that image out of her head. "to get me out & I was going to miss classes! I was grateful! I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, Ok? So sue me!" She answered defensively

Ron still wasn't convinced "So that's it? Just a kiss on the cheek? You don't like him or anything?" He demanded

"Well… He is kind of good looking…" She said hesitantly, but seeing the looks on Harry & Ron's faces, she added hastily "But I don't fancy him! He's at least 20 years older than me!" unconsciously flicking a strand of hair around.

"But Ginny did something as well!" She said, in a desperate bid to not make a fool out of herself.

Again, a jealous male voice answered her. This time it was Harry. "What? My girlfriend's been kissing my godfather?!"

Hermione shrugged and answered, as Ginny was busy trying not to throw up "No. But I asked her what she was doing while I was locked in, and she just shuddered and said that she never wanted to think about if again."

Ginny won the battle, but only just. She still looked pale. "I have discovered one of the things I would never do again, even if you paid me a million galleons." She said in half disgust, half fear.

"What?" Harry asked curiously

"Wake up Sirius Black after a nights sleep." She answered

"Why?" This time it was Ron.

"He sleeps in the nude." She said, and shuddered again.

Harry, Ron & Hermione goggled at her. "I didn't see any of his… bits. I faced the wall, covered my eyes, closed them & threatened to hex them off if he didn't get dressed in the next five minutes" She said, the urge to throw up coming back.

Harry chortled and pulled Ginny closer to him "Well, it still must be better than the time I woke you up. My eye still hurts." He joked.

Hermione tried to imagine what it would be like to see Sirius naked. She used her imagination to its fullest extent, but she still couldn't see what would be causing Ginny to pale like that. Stop it Hermione!! she mentally cursed herself.

"There's one last thing I want to show you…" Hermione said mischievously. She summoned her pensive and gestured to Ginny to put her memory of the night before in it. She put her wand to her temple and drew out a silvery thread. She placed it in Hermione's pensive and stirred it.

Hermione touched her face to the pensive, and so did Ginny. The two girls disappeared into the memory, leaving the boys to follow.

The four watched the memory, all of them laughing so hard they fell over. Once the memory was finished, Hermione glanced at her watch and nearly had a heart attack. She got out of the memory and ran out the door.

The three remaining occupants of the room stared after her, wondering what was wrong. They noticed that she had grabbed her bag as she went, and realized that their free period was over.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully for the four teens.

She was there. In Godric's Hallow. Nagini was slowly moving towards her. She couldn't move. She was mesmerised by her pulsating scales and muscles that could crush her without a second thought.

Nagini changed to Voldemort, who pointed his wand at her, and she was forced to kneel. Bellatrix appeared and grabbed her wrist. She started branding her wrists.

She heard his cruel, cold laugh as she screamed. She saw Ginny, Harry, Ron and everyone that she loved watching her, but doing nothing to stop the torture.

She caught sight of a large locket lying on a tree stump. No—no, it couldn't be. They had destroyed it. They had went through months of miserable living to do it, but they had! They had destroyed it!

The locket disappeared and reappeared in Voldemort's hands. He stroked it lovingly and whispered to her "You thought you destroyed it? You thought you finished me? You could never finish me."

He laughed again, a laugh filled with malice and hate "You are just a little child. You could never do something to change the world."

Bellatrix cackled and twisted her wrists, her job done. She had marked her as the worthless filthy mudblood she was.

Hermione looked down at what was on her wrists. "Filthy Mudblood". She looked on the other wrist. The Dark Mark. She was a Death Eater now.

Hermione sat bolt upright in her bed, breathing hard. Not another one! Those damned dreams! She thought. She couldn't take this. Every night she had been woken by that damned dream. Sometimes it was different, sometimes there were only a few people watching, sometimes Nagini would come out of the locket and bite her, but they were all slowly killing her. They had started sometime around the start of the summer, and she had one every night, without fail.

She couldn't take this anymore. She had to do something. She had to stop it. But how? She refused to ask anyone for help—after all, she was the great Hermione Granger, she could do anything! But she would not take a potion. She hated Dreamless Sleep. It would ruin who she was.

She couldn't go back to sleep, for fear of having another nightmare. But she couldn't stay up all night either. She looked at the clock on the mantle and saw the glow in the dark display read 3:00 AM.

Outside, Sirius was doing his rounds when he heard noises coming from Hermione's room. He knocked on the portrait, checking to see if everything was alright.

She heard a tired voice calling "Hermione?" It was Sirius. She wrenched the door open, and unbeknown to her, Sirius was taken aback by her appearance. She was breathing hard, her hair a mess & she looked afraid. Positively afraid. But there was a small glint of stubborn determination in her eyes.

"Why are you here?" She asked, her voice quavering.

"I was doing my rounds. You were screaming stuff 'I destroyed it. It can't be back. It was over'." He answered.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I must have forgotten to put up the silencing charms! I usually never forget, otherwise I would have woken up everyone else" To her horror, she could feel tears sliding down her face. "I'm sorry. It's just been a bad day and—" the tears were coming down faster "Sorry. You probably don't want to hear about my problems. I'll just put up a silencing charm and then you can go back to your rounds." She said, trying to get him to leave.

He didn't like seeing her cry. He wanted to know what was making her cry, why was she so insecure? She was never this insecure. She never said sorry. "Shhh… Hermione, it's ok. Tell me what's wrong." He said comfortingly, stroking her cheek. He guided her to her bed and they sat down on it.

"It's nothing.. Just a nightmare…" she muttered. He had been trying to find out the reason for the bags under her eyes before, but this was the first time he actually had any progress.

"It's not just a nightmare. Tell me what it was about." He said softly.

Hermione faltered. She never told anyone about her nightmares, she just wrote them down in her diary. But maybe she needed to tell someone? Maybe it would help? Sirius stroked her cheek again, and she unconsciously leaned into his touch. She made her decision.

"I was in Godric's Hallow…" She started, then faltered again. Sirius continued to stroke her cheek encouragingly and she continued "I was in Godric's Hallow, and Nagini was coming towards her, and I couldn't move." She said weakly. "Nagini turned into Voldemort and he made me kneel… And then Bellatrix started branding my wrists and Ginny & Harry & Ron and everyone was there and they didn't do anything, they just watched and—" She was hysterical now. Sirius put a thumb over her mouth and cut her off. "Take a deep breath. Now. Slowly tell me what happened." he asked.

She did as she was told. "They didn't do anything. They just watched. And then I saw the locket. The one we destroyed. The horcrux" Her voice faded. She took another breath and continued "Then he was stroking it and he told me that I could never defeat him. Bellatrix twisted my wrists and laughed. I looked at them and on one wrist was 'Filthy Mudblood'." She started crying harder, but still continued "And on the other was the—the Dark Mark. I was one of them." She said, and then broke down.

She was crying hard, but not making any noise. Sirius hated seeing her like this, but it was good that she was telling someone. Doing this to herself, not sleeping, keeping everything to herself. But why do you care? A part of his mind whispered.

Because I can't just ignore it he retorted to himself

But you could have just told one of the boys, then you wouldn't have to worry about her again.

He ignored the voice and turned back to Hermione, who's tears were stopping. She smiled weakly at him "You probably think I'm a silly little girl who's crying over nothing" She said.

"No. Crying doesn't make you silly" He said, then remembered something she had said "You've been having these dreams before? And hiding them?" he said sharply, but not unkindly.

She avoided his gaze "Yes" she said in a small voice. "Please don't tell anyone" She pleaded.

"Relax, love. I wasn't going to. But you should tell them, just when you're ready. Don't let anyone force you into telling something you don't want to". He soothed her.

She visibly relaxed. "I'm sorry I pulled you off your rounds"

"I was just going back to my quarters anyway" He replied

"Are you thirsty?" He asked her. She nodded. "I'll get you a glass of water."

He walked out of her bedroom, straight into Draco Malfoy.

"What are you doing here, Draco?" He whispered, so Hermione wouldn't hear.

He shrugged "I heard voices talking. I wonder what you were doing in there, alone with Granger." He said suggestively.

Sirius sighed "Look, I don't have time for this. I know that you do care about some things, and I'm pretty sure this is one of them. So just please keep your mouth shut. I don't need her any more distressed than she already is"

Draco considered him, then nodded mutely. Sirius went into the kitchen to get Hermione's water and brought it back to her.

She was asleep when he came back. He left her water on the desk and turned to leave, when he felt something pulling on his sleeve. He looked back and saw Hermione holding on his sleeve, looking at him with her beautiful brown eyes.

"Please don't go" she whispered

"Why?" He asked as he sat back down on the bed

"Then the nightmares will probably come back" she said.

Sirius nodded, understanding. He put her arm around her and she relaxed against him.

The next time he looked, she was asleep. He gently laid her down on the bed, but when he tried to leave, her hand wouldn't let him go. He looked at her, lying down, so peaceful and serene. Her hair was splayed around her head and her lips were parted ever so slightly.

He yawned, he was getting tired as well. He laid down next to her and closed his eyes.

Soon enough, they were both asleep. Hermione unconsciously moved closer to him, and Sirius put his arm around her, pulling her closer.

Her nightmares didn't start again that night.